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First Cape to Cairo fibre network soon

A 60 000 km fibre network that runs from Cape Town, through all the Southern, Central, and Eastern African countries, and has now reached the border between Sudan and Egypt.

Liquid Telecom, and Telecom Egypt, Egypt’s first integrated telecom operator, at the 2018 Annual Meetings of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) that will enable Liquid Telecom to complete Africa’s Cape Town to Cairo terrestrial fibre network.

Liquid Telecom will link its network from Sudan into Telecom Egypt’s network via a new cross border interconnection – bringing together a 60 000 km network that runs from Cape Town, through all the Southern, Central, and Eastern African countries, and has now reached the border between Sudan and Egypt. The Cape to Cairo network – often referred to as “the One Africa” broadband network – has been in the making for over ten years and serves some of the largest global companies with some of the fastest network speeds on the continent.

As part of the strategic partnership, Liquid Telecom and Telecom Egypt will share network infrastructure and explore further areas of collaboration, including joint network services, a peering arrangement and a voice interconnection agreement. Telecom Egypt, which has served Egyptian customers for over 160 years, will offer Liquid Telecom unrivalled reach through interconnection services, while Egypt Telecom’s customers will benefit from access to Liquid Telecom’s pan-African fibre network.

The MOU is an interesting development and hopefully will pave the way for easier access for other submarine cable projects to cross Egypt. Egypt has historically been the submarine industry’s chokepoint of most concern resulting many systems having to be routed across territories in conflict as passage through Egypt was either too expense or outrightly refused.

“Completing our vision of building a single network running on land, from Cape to Cairo is a historic moment for a more connected Africa. This network not only represents a remarkable engineering achievement that has overcome some of the most challenging distances and terrains on the continent, but it is also supporting the rise of Africa’s digital economies,” said Strive Masiyiwa, Founder and Executive Chairman of Econet. “Wherever the One Africa network has been completed we have seen dramatic increase of data traffic between nations connected to it. We expect to see a lot of traffic between Egypt and the rest of Africa. Where there is improved communications, improved trade follows as well.”